


Grey Aura

by tisfan



Series: Tony Stark Bingo [49]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Night Manager (TV), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Abusive Relationships, M/M, Murder, Night Manager AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23379124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tisfan/pseuds/tisfan
Summary: Loki knows too much...but not what to do about it.
Relationships: Loki/Tony Stark
Series: Tony Stark Bingo [49]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1030077
Comments: 27
Kudos: 134
Collections: Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	Grey Aura

**Author's Note:**

> Written by: @tisfan 3023  
> Square: K3 - Tony Stark / Loki
> 
> This is just an intro...

There was an unmistakable grey aura that crept in whenever he saw death. 

Loki Odinson turned away, swallowing hard, trying not to breathe in the thick odor of death. He could almost taste the last moments of Quill's life. How scared he must have been, and yet hoping that he'd done the right thing. He had not. And now, now he never would.

There was an envelope of evidence in the manager's safe -- Loki's safe -- that implicated Quill's husband, Obadiah Stane, for weapon smuggling. Black market guns and drugs. Under the table. Both sides of the fence. Loki only knew that because he’d looked. And he’d only looked because the first thing that Stane had done, after discovering that his spouse was dead, was have his tough guys check the hotel’s outgoing mail.

Loki hadn’t done anything with that information, and then, seeing what had happened -- well, it was too late to save Quill. Loki would hold the information, until he found someone who was in a position to use it.

Loki swallowed down grief. He hadn’t loved Quill, but he’d like the man. Sweet, and a little desperate. Afraid, and just a little bit of an idiot.

Quill’s death wasn’t an accident; although Loki saw another one of the husband’s bodyguards-slash-flunkies slip the coroner a wad of cash. It would be ruled accidental death. Slipped in the shower. Astonishing how many people died that way. Naked, vulnerable. Alone.

That unmistakable grey aura. It cast a pall over everything.

* * *

Two years later, and a different hotel.

Nothing has changed, outwardly.

Loki has changed on the inside. He’s different now. Different from the person he was when he left the military and became a simple hotel clerk in a foreign country, eventually working up to being the night manager. He’s refused promotions after that. He likes working at night. It is quieter at night. Safer at night.

It is only luck that Loki sees Quill’s husband -- Obadiah Stane, according to the register, but perhaps not his real name -- before he sees the man himself.

“Check him in,” Loki hisses at the desk clerk. “I’m not available.” 

He cannot bring himself to talk to the man who had Quill murdered. Stane would not have dirtied his hands himself; he’s not that sort of man. But he is a murderer. There’s no mistaking it.

Loki still has the packet, waiting for the right moment to deliver it. Someone he can trust, because he does not trust very many people, and neither the CIA nor British Intelligence has proven itself reliable. They both chase money over lives.

Stane has a new husband now. Younger, even than Quill.

The young husband is beautiful, the same way Quill was beautiful.

And Loki knows that no good can come of it.

The young husband, the new husband, the _replacement_ , is quick and clever, mouth pulled up in a perfect, happy smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes, and no one notices. And then-- then. Loki sees the child. The new husband doesn’t go to the bar to drink and to be alone. He goes to get a glass of milk for a little boy, and to be somewhere quiet and away from his husband’s flunkies.

Loki nudges the bartender away.

“Mr. Stane,” he says, bowing low. “I’m the night manager. Can I get you a drink?”

“Hey there, handsome,” the young husband says. “Just Tony, please. This is my son, Peter.”


End file.
